Furry fandom

The furry fandom is a subculture interested in fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics.[1] Examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, the ability to speak, walk on two legs, and wear clothes. Furry fandom is also used to refer to the community of people who gather on the Internet and at furry conventions.[2]

The specific term furry fandom was being used in fanzines as early as 1983, and had become the standard name for the genre by the mid-1990s, when it was defined as "the organized appreciation and dissemination of art and prose regarding 'Furries', or fictional mammalian anthropomorphic characters."[4] However, fans consider the origins of furry fandom to be much earlier, with fictional works such as Kimba, The White Lion released in 1965, Richard Adams' novel Watership Down, published in 1972 (and its 1978 film adaptation), as well as Disney's Robin Hood as oft-cited examples.[3] To distinguish these personae from seriously depicted animal characters, such as Lassie or Old Yeller, cartoon animals are referred to as funny animals.[5]

During the 1980s, furry fans began to publish fanzines, developing a diverse social group that eventually began to schedule social gatherings. By 1989, there was sufficient interest to stage the first furry convention.[6] Throughout the next decade, the Internet became accessible to the general population and became the most popular means for furry fans to socialize.[7] The newsgroupalt.fan.furry was created in November 1990, and virtual environments such as MUCKs also became popular places on the Internet for fans to meet and communicate.[8]

The furry fandom is male-dominated, with surveys reporting around 80% male respondents.[9][10][11]

Inspiration

Allegorical novels (including works of both science fiction and fantasy) and cartoons featuring anthropomorphic animals are often cited as the earliest inspiration for the fandom.[3] A survey conducted in 2007 suggested that, when compared to a non-furry control group, a higher proportion of those self-identifying as furries liked cartoons "a great deal" as children and recalled watching them significantly more often, as well as being more likely to enjoy works of science fiction than those outside of the community.[12]

Activities

According to a survey from 2008, most furries believe that visual art, conventions, literature, and online communities are strongly important to the fandom.[10]

Crafts

Some furry fans create and wear costumes, commonly known as fursuits, of their characters.

Fans with craft skills create their own plush toys, sometimes referred to as plushies, and also build elaborate costumes called fursuits,[13] which are worn for fun or to participate in parades, convention masquerades, dances, or fund-raising charity events (as entertainers).[14] Fursuits range from designs featuring simple construction and resembling sportsmascots[12] to those with more sophisticated features that include moving jaw mechanisms, animatronic parts, prosthetic makeup, and other features. Fursuits range in price from $500, for mascot-like designs, to an upwards of $10,000 for models incorporating animatronics.[15] While about 80% of furries do not own a full fursuit,[9][10][12] often citing their expensive cost as the decisive factor,[12] a majority of them hold positive feelings towards fursuiters and the conventions in which they participate.[9][10] Some fans may also wear "partial" suits consisting simply of ears and a tail, or a head, paws, and a tail.[12]

Role-playing also takes place offline, with petting, hugging and "scritching" (light scratching and grooming) common between friends at social gatherings.[7] Fursuits or furry accessories are sometimes used to enhance the experience.

Furry fans prepare for a race at Midwest FurFest 2006.

Conventions

Sufficient interest and membership has enabled the creation of many furry conventions in North America and Europe. A furry convention is for the fans get together to buy and sell artwork, participate in workshops, wear costumes, and socialize.[22] The world's largest[23] furry convention, Anthrocon with more than 5,861 participants, held annually in Pittsburgh in June,[24] was estimated to have generated approximately $3 million to Pittsburgh's economy in 2008.[25] Another convention, Further Confusion, held in San Jose each January, closely follows Anthrocon in scale and attendance. US$470,000 was raised in conventions for charity from 2000–9.[26] The first known furry convention, ConFurence,[3] is no longer held; Califur has replaced it, as both conventions were based in Southern California. A University of California, Davis survey suggested that about 40% of furries had attended at least one furry convention.[9]

Websites and online communities

The Internet contains a multitude of furry websites and online communities, such as art community websites Fur Affinity, Inkbunny, SoFurry and Weasyl; social networking sites Furry 4 Life and FurNation; and WikiFur, a collaborative furry wiki.[27] These, with the IRC networksFurNet and Anthrochat, form a key part of furry fandom. Usenet newsgroups such as alt.fan.furry and alt.lifestyle.furry, popular from the mid-1990s to 2005, have been replaced by topic-specific forums, mailing lists and LiveJournal communities.

Furry lifestylers

The phrases furry lifestyle and furry lifestyler first appeared in July 1996 on the newsgroup alt.fan.furry during an ongoing dispute within that online community. The Usenet newsgroup alt.lifestyle.furry was created to accommodate discussion beyond furry art and literature, and to resolve disputes concerning what should or should not be associated with the fandom; its members quickly adopted the term furry lifestylers, and still consider the fandom and the lifestyle to be separate social entities. They have defined and adopted an alternative meaning of the word furry specific to this group: "a person with an important emotional/spiritual connection with an animal or animals, real, fictional or symbolic."[31]

In their 2007 survey, Gerbasi et al. examined what it meant to be a furry, and proposed a taxonomy in which to categorise different "types" of furries. The largest group — 38% of those surveyed — described their interest in furry fandom predominantly as a "route to socializing with others who share common interests such as anthropomorphic art and costumes."[12] However they also identified furries who saw themselves as "other than human", and/or who desired to become more like the furry species which they identified with.[7][12]

Sexual aspects

According to four different surveys, 14–25% of the fandom members report homosexuality, 37–52% bisexuality, 28–51% heterosexuality, and 3–8% other forms of alternative sexual relationships.[9][11][32] Of the furry fans that reported being in a relationship (approximately half of the surveyed population), 76% were in a relationship with another member of furry fandom.[9] Examples of sexual aspects within furry fandom include erotic art and furry-themed cybersex.[33][34] The term "yiff" is most commonly used to indicate sexual activity or sexual material within the fandom—this applies to sexual activity and interaction within the subculture whether in the form of cybersex or offline.[35][36]

Sexual attraction to furry characters is a polarized issue within the fandom; in one survey with 4300 furry respondents, 37% answered that sexual attraction is important in their furry activities, 38% were ambivalent, and 24% answered that it has little or nothing to do with their furry activities.[32] In a different online survey, 33% of furry respondents answered that they have a "significant sexual interest in furry", another 46% stated they have a "minor sexual interest in furry", and the remaining 21% stated they have a "non-sexual interest in furry". The survey specifically avoided adult-oriented websites to prevent bias.[11]

A portion of the fandom is sexually interested in zoophilia, or in fursuiting, although a majority take a negative stance towards the former.[37][unreliable source?] In a survey conducted by David J. Rust in 1997-1998, about 2% of furry respondents stated an interest in zoophilia, and less than 1% an interest in plushophilia, though the survey's accompanying study doesn't comment on these results,[38] and in another survey in 2008 attempting to replicate the results, 17% of respondents reported zoophilia. The survey's accompanying study suggested that the older, lower results were due to respondents being susceptible to social desirability bias.[39]

Public perception and media coverage

Early portrayal of the furries in magazines such as Loaded,[40]Vanity Fair,[41] and the syndicated sex column "Savage Love" focused mainly on the sexual aspect of furry fandom. Fictional portrayals of furry fandom have appeared on television shows such as ER,[42]CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,[43]The Drew Carey Show,[44]Sex2K on MTV,[45]Entourage,[46]1000 Ways to Die,[47]Tosh.0, and 30 Rock.[48] Most furry fans claim that these media portrayals are misconceptions,[49][50][51] while the recent coverage focuses on debunking myths and stereotypes that have come to be associated with the furry fandom.[52] A reporter attending Anthrocon 2006 noted that "despite their wild image from Vanity Fair, MTV and CSI, furry conventions aren't about kinky sex between weirdos gussied up in foxy costumes", that conference attendees were "not having sex more than the rest of us",[53] and that the furry convention was about "people talking and drawing animals and comic-book characters in sketchbooks."[35] In October 2007, a Hartford Advocate reporter attended FurFright 2007 undercover because of media restrictions. She learned that the restrictions were intended to prevent misinformation, and reported that the scandalous behavior she had expected was not evident.[54] Recent coverage of the furry fandom has been more balanced. According to Ian Wolf, a 2009 article from the BBC entitled "Who are the furries?" was the first piece of journalism to be nominated for an Ursa Major Award, the main awards given in the field of anthropomorphism.[7][55][56]

Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Jim Powell was sharing a hotel with Anthrocon 2007 attendees a day before the convention and reported a negative opinion of the furries.[57] Several downtown Pittsburgh businesses welcome furries during the event, with local business owners creating special T-shirts and drawing paw prints in chalk outside their shops to attract attendees.[58] Dr. Samuel Conway, CEO of Anthrocon, said that "For the most part, people give us curious stares, but they're good-natured curious stares. We're here to have fun, people have fun having us here, everybody wins".[59]

According to Furry survey, about half of furries perceive public reaction to the fandom as negative; less than a fifth stated that the public responded to them more negatively than they did most furries.[10] Furry fans' belief that they will be portrayed as "mainly obsessed with sex" has led to mistrust of the media and social researchers.[7]